A Drop in the Ocean
by FoxGlade
Summary: A series of oneshots set before, after and during the war. Chapter Three - Tranquility.
1. Someday

**Someday**

Me again. I got this idea from the awesome story _Remembering Her Birthday_, by Soul Raider 116 (please don't sue me!). So, yeah. Read on.

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Tobias's POV

I had put it off as long as I could. I had argued with myself almost all day. But I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. Because today was the day.

The day that Rachel died.

Two years ago to the day, Rachel had been killed in our final battle against the Yeerks. I still remembered that final moment, the moment that haunted my dreams every night…

I flew using the last hour of daylight and warmth to the place where Rachel's memorial stood.

Once there, I morphed human. It had been a long time since I had done that. I knelt down next to the place where Rachel lay.

"Hey, Rachel," I said softly, in a voice almost silent from a long time dormant.

I coughed once or twice, and started again. "Sorry I left it to the last minute, Rachel," I continued. "I didn't want to see the others, and I knew they wouldn't have forgotten that this is… the day." I smiled sadly. "You aren't happy with me, I know. I will talk to the others. Just… not yet." I shook my head. "You aren't buying it, are you? You never did."

I sighed. If I just believed Rachel could hear me… "I like to think that you're listening, Rachel. And that you know I love you." I looked around at the flowers everyone else had bought today. "Sorry I didn't bring any flowers. I hope you forgive me. You were never one for flowers though, were you?"

"Rachel…" I trailed off. "You're still there to me. In my dreams, every night, even if they aren't happy ones. In my thoughts, every minute of every day. Not an hour goes by when I don't try and think of someway I could have saved you. I even tried to call the Ellimist once. But he didn't answer. I guess he's done with us, now that we've won. Or maybe he knew what I was going to ask, and didn't want to refuse it. Because I know that even the Ellimist can't raise the dead."

"Someday we'll be together again. Heaven, hell, limbo, reincarnation… wherever you are, I'll find you. We'll be together again, I promise."

I stood up to go "Anyway, I just wanted to say… I miss you, Rachel. Miss you a lot." I gave a wry smile. "Just in case you didn't know."

Then I demorphed. I wheeled up into the sky, and flew back to my meadow.

That night, I dreamed of Rachel. Not as I usually did, with her standing in front of a massive polar bear, about to… no, not that.

I dreamed of the night that I had gone to the dance with her and the rest of the group. I had been panicked over missing the two hour limit. I now cursed myself for not treasuring every moment with Rachel, but how could I have known then?

She had led me onto the dance floor. We swayed back and forth to the music, looking into each other's eyes, willing ourselves never to let go…

I awoke slowly. Staring up at the sky, the stars, I swear I saw a little blue star that twinkled in my direction. Like a sign that Rachel still heard me.

_Miss you, Rachel_, I said to the star. _Miss you a lot_.


	2. Rain

Rain

Aximilli-Esgarrouth-Isthill, more commonly known as Ax, was feeding near his scoop at sunset. He turned all four of his eyes to the west, where the sun barely showed though the thick cloud cover.

_From the sun's rising, to it's setting, to it's rising again, we place what is hard to endure with what is sweet to remember, and we find peace._

He frowned as a rain drop splattered on his head, ruining the reverential moment. But he knew more rain was on the way, so he hurried back to his scoop.

As Ax huddled under his shelter, he thought inexplicably of the time he had morphed Prince Jake and had dinner with Cassie and her parents. That was one of his favourite memories. It often gave him comfort and warmth.

He shivered and wiggled deeper into the shelter, away from the lightning cracks and thunder growls, the lashing rain, and remembered.

* * *

Cassie bent over a cage that contained a racoon with a broken leg. It had been hit a glancing blow by a car, and refused to take any medication, no matter how much Cassie pleaded. Finally it saw reason and took the medicine, leaving Cassie free to wander up to her room and start her homework.

She only stuck at it for five minutes before sighing and giving up. Looking out the window, she saw that it was just after sunset – she also saw that it was starting to rain. In ten seconds, the sounds on the roof had gone from a gentle pitter patter to a thundering roar. Cassie lay down on her bed, curling up. Something about the rain made her do it. She glanced at the clock – it said 5:49pm. Her thoughts strayed to the leader of the Animorphs, Jake – her crush. _What is he doing right now?_ she sleepily wondered. She never even noticed that she hadn't closed the window, and the wind was swirling the papers on her desk onto the floor. She was already fast asleep.

* * *

Jake got off the bed, and looked at the clock, which read 5:50pm. He had nothing to do. Of course, he could do his homework, or read, or play a video game – but he just couldn't. He was exhausted from a night of battling foes in his dreams, only to wake gasping, drenched in sweat. He would have been lucky to get two hours of sleep.

He paced, he lay on the bed, he looked out the window, even considered calling his best friend Marco. But he didn't. Finally, he flopped back on the bed, exhausted. And that just had to be the moment that he heard his mother calling out to him that dinner was ready.

_No rest for the wicked,_ he thought.

* * *

Marco was in his room, studying. At least, he was trying to study. But the driving rain and the ticking of his analogue clock was burrowing into his brain, making it impossible to pay attention to Pythagoras Theorem. He sighed and slammed the book shut, and glanced at the ever ticking clock. 5:54pm. How could he pass so much time?

He looked out the window, and stuck a hand into the rain. It stung, and was as cold as ice. He winced and cradled his hand to his chest. _I'd like to see Rachel stay dry in this_, he thought grimly. Honestly, the tall blonde had some magical ability to look perfect in the middle of anything. Come rain, hail or shine, Rachel can be counted upon to look like a teen model.

Marco slid down the wall and collapsed at the base. Why was life so unfair?

* * *

Rachel was standing in the middle of her backyard, and she was indeed dry. But while Marco called it magic, Rachel called it an umbrella.

She was sitting in the branch of a tree, just listening to the roaring of the rain. It was strangely peaceful. She could just go to sleep here. And she was so… tired…

Rachel started to snore, but quickly awoke when she heard someone yelling her name. _Coming_, she thought tiredly. She climbed down from the tree and made her way inside, and stood firm against a lecture from her mother. But in her head, she was thinking of someone else. Someone with messy blonde hair and daydream eyes. Or, more commonly, someone with fierce golden eyes, wicked talons and a tearing beak.

Rachel sighed again and went into her room. 5:56pm. _Someday…_ Rachel thought sleepily, and then she was snoring again.

* * *

Tobias shuffled his wings on the branch again, trying to get all of his small body under the only protection in his tree. No such luck. His tail feathers and his wingtips were already soaked, and he was very, very cold. With a little trill of fear, he realised that if he didn't get proper cover soon, he might just fade away from the cold, go to sleep and never wake up. So he spread his wings and, keeping to the most covered areas, made his way to Ax's scoop.

When he finally got there, thoroughly wet, chilled to the bone and very disgruntled, he noticed that Ax was sitting with his legs tucked under him in a corner of his scoop, trembling, asleep. Without a word, Tobias fluttered down next to him and huddled up beside him, trying to give as much body warmth as possible. A quick glance at the clock on top of Ax's TV said that it was 6pm – a little early to go to sleep, but hey, who was he to complain? Tobias nestled closer to his _shorm_, his true friend, and thought one last thing before sleep closed over him.

_Normality is underrated_.

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There! wasn't that great? now, you know what to do: REVIEW!!


	3. Tranquility

An AU one shot inspired by a song I heard. Dedicated to hotpink72.

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**Tranquility**

The peaceful glade, deep in the woods, was indeed just that. Peaceful. With its slender, pale trees, soft green grass swaying in the breeze and the tiny crystal clear pool, it seemed to be the meaning tranquility.

But today something disturbed the peace.

Someone, in fact. A tall figure – much like the trees, in fact, slender and pale – burst from said trees, panting and puffing and generally disturbing the silence. But when the exhausted breaths slowed down, a sob forced itself out of the figure and it fell to it's knees in front of the pool, tears running down it's face.

Rachel did not often cry, and much less in front of others.

She collapsed onto all fours, looking at her reflection in the pool as if it could somehow comfort her. But the sight of her own face, red and blotchy from crying, just made her sob even harder. It seemed to mock her, the image twisting and writhing from the ripples her tears made as they touched the pure water.

Some part of her rational mind calmly told her that it was already gone and done, and no amount of tears would change that. But she rarely listened to that part of her anyway, so she continued to cry, and lament, and mourn.

Tobias was dead.

A last ditch effort, Jake had said. For the good of the Earth. And he'd been right. The war was won, and they had, quite literally, saved the world. But at the cost of a friend, a team mate…

She stayed in the little meadow for a long time, alternating between mourning her love, screaming out to anyone who'd listen every single detail of what was wrong with the world, and silently reflecting on every moment they had spent together, memorizing every detail of him; the way he looked, the feel of his hand in hers, how his eyes lit up upon seeing her – God, even she could even still remember his _smell_,that unique mix of trees andsomething indefinable… she remembered how she had once remarked on it, and he had laughed and told her that it was probably Andalite.

It hit her again, hard, that she'd never see him again, never hear that calm voice, never… never…

She held her head in her hands as she sobbed with a new intensity – God, it just hurt so much! Why did it have to be him that went? She would gladly have sacrificed herself for the cause.

Her hands fell limply to her sides as she considered the slightest possibility, the merest hint of a suggestion, that maybe, _maybe_, Tobias knew that. And he had volunteered so that she could continue to live, continue to tell the world about their struggle… tell the world about him. _And by God_, she thought grimly, _if that's what it takes for him to be remembered, then I'll do it_.

So with that, she stood up, looking once more into the pool, as if asking her reflection what it thought of her now. But standing there, behind the girl in the water, was another figure… a familiar figure… but it couldn't be..?

She spun around with an almost frightened whisper. "Tobias?" she gasped fearfully.

But there was nobody there.

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You know, I realized about halfway through this that it's almost an opposite version of Someday. Ah well, you all liked that a lot…

As I said, this is dedicated to hotpink72, for knocking the sense into me with her review, and I quote: "THIS IS HORRIBLE! GO BACK TO HOW U USED TO WRITE! SOMEDAY. GO READ THAT AGAIN!"

Thank you for that. Certainly cleared my head. Sorry to all the people I disappointed with my bad one shots… I now look at them and wince.

So, to get my reviewers back, I decided to write another angsty death fic. And it worked, right? Right?

--Fox


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